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At my front door, waiting to greet me when I got home from my trip was my new Tiller. I had to get it made at Rudder-Craft while I was gone... the whole process takes 2 weeks... what a coincidence, that was how long I was gone! It is beautiful! I had it done with an epoxy finish, then a varnish... basically the best package they had. and I also bought a tiller cover for it! That should take care of all of those exposure problems that caused the old one to fail.

The first thing I noticed though is that I was going to have to modify this beautifully finished product, so that it would fit in the hardware. the aft end would have to be cut to about a 60 degree angle, and when i tried to put the hardware on, I found the tiller base was about 1/4 inch too wide.... DANG!

In trying to figure out what tool to use to make the 60 degree cut, it occured to me that this might be the purfect job for my 12" sanding disc.... So I set up my Shop-Smith Mark V for the sanding disk operati…

So, Just after the Tiller Debacle, I had to go out of town, well out of state really, for a couple of weeks. It was for work, but I was able to connect some leave to it which had allowed me to do something I haven't been able to do for a couple of years... spend time with my Boys! One lives in North Carolina with his wife and daughter (Coincidentally he is stationed at Ft. Bragg, the very place I had been sent to do some work)
, and one lives in Virginia... Neither of them close to me. Oh well, life is what it is.

First , after my Work week at Ft. Bragg, I was off to Virginia to visit my youngest son, Jason. We had a great time getting caught up on all that has gone on since we had seen each other last. we spent hours at dinner talking about just about everything under the sun.

We went to see Iron Man 3 that had just been released. not a bad film... personally I think it was the best of the three.

And then we spent a bit of Male bonding doing what My son likes to do best... Wor…

So, it was a Saturday, and the weather was gorgeous! wind wasn't TOO high, but good enough to get some solo experience under my belt. so I packed my backpack, and headed out to the Marina.

Then I headed down to the boat, and started preparations... staying the dinghy, taking off the sail cover and so on. to be quite honest, I was a bit on the terrified side... I had never tried to single-hand the boat out of the slip before, and I was a bit inexperienced in backing it up. I knew that it had a pretty good prop-walk to port, but that was about all I knew. I took a deep breath and cast of the bow line, and then the stern and tried backing out.... several times. this was a lot easier with someone to help fend off the dock. then I saw Ian (the Marina Manager) coming down the dock, and he came down to help me out of the slip. He told me if I come back and they are open, just to give them a call on the radio, and they would be happy to help me back into the slip. He also …

So the time has come to move to a new home. I was pretty anxious about this. a lot could go wrong, and my inexperience could work against me. well no time to think about that. we had to move, and that was that. I had secured a new slip at Foss Harbor Marina. Although it was originally my second choice, mainly because was about 3 miles further from my house than my number one choice, the breakwater Marina, it is quickly growing on me as a favorite, despite the extra distance. Foss Harbor Marina is very clean and well maintained. there are many amenities such as Bathroom and showers, a meeting room with a big TV that you can even reserve to use after hours, a nice marina store with a VERY friendly Staff, a barbecue area with picnic tables, a fuel dock, and free pump out service. The Staff makes you feel very comfortable. Even though I am new to this, they are always patient with me, and explain things step by step. they have never looked down on me for being a newbie, and I t…